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Monkey Monday: just a little news 28 November 2011 5:56 pm

Posted by Tracy in : cross-posting,economics,meta,monkeys,news,random , add a comment

Urgh, readers. I have the post-holiday-weekend plague, in the form of a cold that makes me want to do nothing more strenuous than lie around feeling sorry for myself, with the only occasional exertion to pour myself the next cup of ginger ale (Schweppes, not even the good stuff) or tea. So today’s post is pretty random, an even more biased sample of the weekend’s food-related New York Times articles, and something I saw on Tumblr. Coming up later this week: Twitter Tuesday, a more complete turducken Wordless Wednesday if I can swing it, and then some well-earned rest. This NaBloPoMo thing has been quite the adventure! Anyway, on with the post: (more…)

TMI Tuesday: McRib edition 15 November 2011 1:57 pm

Posted by Tracy in : comics,consumerism,cross-posting,economics,fangirl,fast food,fun,mystery meat,not even vegetarian,pictures , add a comment

First and foremost, full disclosure seems in order (and very much in the spirit of Too Much Information): I have never eaten a McDonalds McRib sandwich (TM?) In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one in the, um, flesh — if something as hyper-processed as the McRib (or, for that matter, McNuggets or Spam or… you get the idea, the list goes on) can still be considered flesh. Maybe it’s like honey in that regard, if it gets sufficiently processed it can no longer be called by that name? I don’t know. Anyway, that seemed like an important bit of information to get out of the way: this post is more about the McRib as cultural phenomenon than anything else. For whatever reason last week seems to have been McRib Week on various and sundry online media I follow, and so here are the items that made me say, “Ok, clearly I need to do a TracyFood post about this,” starting with some hilarious conspiracy theory economics, and ending with comics for people who want to skim past all that boring long reading stuff. (more…)

Monkey Monday: weekend in review, week in preview 7 November 2011 10:10 am

Posted by Tracy in : books,economics,food snobbery,geekery,meta,monkeys,news,politics,random,society , add a comment

Today’s Monkey Monday randomness starts with a a shoutback to the weekend’s successful continuation of my NaBloPoMo efforts, because they both include responses to recent food-relevant news events. (Also, and speaking of success, I am happy to report that as of checking in at NaBloPoMo Central on Saturday afternoon, I have at long last managed to sign myself up! I’m #2011 on the official blogroll, which seems auspicious.) There’s also a preview of what I’ve got planned for TracyFood this week: lots of pictures, a long-delayed recipe, and… um, I’m not sure what I’m writing about tomorrow. Open to suggestions over here…. but meanwhile, on with today’s show!

First things first, a bit of serious news: my former classmate Christine is in northern Italy, where flooding and mudslides have turned her blog away from a dreamy chronicle of emigration and gastrotouristic entrepreneurship, into the story of life in a disaster zone (the town of Monterosso, which was devastated, to put it mildly). There are links in her posts to various charities and other efforts to help support the region’s recovery, as I wrote in this weekend’s letter to global climate change, which I totally believe in and really wish would stop proving itself through dramatic, disastrous weather events. (more…)

Monkey Monday: “Is this thing on?” 26 September 2011 10:22 am

Posted by Tracy in : consumerism,convenience,cooking,cross-posting,eating,economics,fast food,food snobbery,health,kitchen gear,photos,pictures,tea,time versus money , add a comment

Pretend I started out here with a hilarious bit about trying to remember how I used to do these posts — or don’t, if meta-self-referential cutesiness is sooo turn of the 00′s and hellooo we are well into the second decade of the 21st century now, dur-hurr… Also maybe read (or reread) that August 2011 New York Times Magazine piece about how David Foster Wallace maybe kinda sorta invented the language of the Internet but he was one of only a very few writers skilled enough to actually employ this style without being super-annoying, and now everybody does it, gah! But I digress.

Here are a few things from this past month that got my attention and couldn’t just be camera-phoned and summarized in a caption on Flickr. There’s a picture and a rant, but then there’s some short and sweet and funny stuff, I promise. (more…)

Mixed feelings about Wal*mart’s sustainable agriculture plan 17 October 2010 3:31 pm

Posted by Tracy in : agriculture,consumerism,economics,local food,Marion Nestle,news,sustainability,WFPA , add a comment

Last Thursday, on Twitter:

@jorgeimontalvo Jorge I. Montalvo
Director, Strategic Initiatives, NYS Consumer Protection Board: food policy and consumer protection
Food folks: what do you think?: Wal-Mart Plans Drive to Buy More Locally Grown Produce: http://is.gd/g1Q9v

@tracyfood Tracy
Food geek, one-time-regular blogger
@jorgeimontalvo I have more mixed feelings about Wal*Mart’s “Global Sustainable Agriculture” plan than fit in 140 chars. Must. Blog. Soon.

Here, at last, is my post.

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News stories, in roughly the order I saw them:

* * * * *

My first thought was, I’ll admit, a mix of kneejerk snobbery and “Solidarity Forever”: ew, Wal*mart. (more…)